Conception and implementation of interdisciplinarity in the Human-Environment Observatories (OHM, CNRS)

Abstract

To respond to the complexity of the socioecosystemic crises that increasingly affect an anthropized and globalized planet, since 2007 the author has developed and implemented within the framework of the CNRS Ecology and Environment Institute (INEE) a comprehensive interdisciplinary system known as the Human-Environment Observatories (or OHM, of which there were 13 in 2019), a laureate of the Laboratory for Excellence project (LabEx) as part of the French Government’s ‘Investing in the future’ programme (‘Programme d’investissement d’avenir’, PIA) since 2012. The author presents what interdisciplinarity means in this framework, how it differs from conventionally identified interdisciplinary exchanges, how it is conceived and implemented, from the theoretical to the most practical level. He provides some examples of work and in a discussion, positions this system and its principles with regard to the existing frameworks and systems.